[Culture Series]Aurus Network, Started By An Unconventional, Led By The Exceptional

This article is a part of the Culture Series we are carrying as a run up to the Startup Jobs Fair, India’s first exclusive campaign to connect the most promising talent with the most exciting startups. This series will bring out the culture of some of the most dynamic startups that have managed to scale and make a mark. Today we are showcasing Aurus Network...

Piyush Agarwal had it all - a bachelors and masters degree from IIT K, and was well on his way to earn his doctorate from Stanford University. It is in stories like this that you begin to feel that problems choose its solvers. The problem showed itself to Piyush and before you knew it, he dropped out and was on a flight back to India to start Aurus Network.

Aurus is a team of 25 people working out of Bangalore with a very unique, India specific offering for technology aided education. While high definition, large file size videos might have worked in the US, India’s internet infrastructure isn’t ready to host such solution at scale. Piyush identified the requirement for a video compression technique that would work over low internet bandwidths.

He says, “There are two parts to the problem. One is obviously the low bandwidth problem. The other is to put in a system that would automate the complete video capture and processing process,” and Aurus does exactly that. With multiple cutting edge technologies in the cloud and data compression space in the IP arsenal, Aurus will be at YourStory’s Startup Jobs Fair, looking to add to their lean and potent team.

Handling change

Aurus was originally started in Bhopal, as Piyush wished to startup in his home town. He says, “honestly speaking, I never had a thought of how my company would be in the early days. We were a small group of people focused on solving a problem.” Piyush also shared that he chose to start up in his home town as most basic needs are taken care of.

Once the product was ready, Aurus set sail for Bangalore. When asked the reason behind this, Piyush says, “If you want a product startup to scale, it's difficult to do it from a place like Bhopal. Bangalore has got an amazing talent pool to choose from. But the best part was, everyone who was working with us from Bhopal moved with us.”

You define your culture

Intrigued by the immense faith that its employees showed in the company I asked Deepti Gupta, the HR head at Aurus, the culture of the company. She says, “The culture is what you want it to be. As a company, we only have one requirement. We want people who are self starters and who can work for the better of the company in an independent, driven way.”

While this is great to hear, I was still skeptical about how such a culture would work, and Deepti explains, “Just put 25 intelligent, driven individuals working for the good of a company together and they somehow find a way to do good things. This has worked very well for us so far.”

I was still skeptical, and I asked Jaya Jha, who left Google to join Aurus in a marketing role, about how such a culture can scale as the company grows, and she said, “I think that's a question probably every company has. Even at Google, it was very startup like and independent in the beginning, but as it grew it had to bring in corporate measures. You are either a small company or a big company and cultures will change as the company grows.”

I rest my case.

The fun part of Aurus

When asked about what the Aurus team does for fun, Piyush says, “It's a lot like college. Apart from the regular movie outings, team lunches and parties, you will find a lot of requests for treats. For example, Jaya just got a new cook, and instantly, the whole team bugged her to treat us.” Piyush further adds that Aurus is like a big family.

At the Startup Jobs Fair, Aurus will be looking for programming and managerial talent, who display a strong sense of ownership. Is this you?

Register for the YourStory Startups Jobs Fair if you already haven't.